


intimate with brokenness

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Series: lexi’s season 8 fics [10]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 8x10 AU, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arrow Series Finale, Canon Temporary Character Death, Crack Treated Seriously, Crisis AU, Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s08e10 Fadeout, F/M, Grief/Mourning, I AM FOUNDING THE TAG, Reunion Sex, Reunions, Smut, Spectre Oliver, Spolicity Sex, THATS THE TAG NOW, Temporary Character Death, Unplanned Pregnancy, finale AU, no afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:21:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22463260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: Felicity Smoak discovers she is pregnant with her and Oliver's second baby on the same day she finds out that her husband has been killed saving billions of people on Earth-38.But this isn't the end for Oliver. By reading the Book of OA, Felicity sets things in motion for Oliver to be transformed into something else - something greater. Their love is bigger than the universe, after all. And sometimes the universe gives back.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Series: lexi’s season 8 fics [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538746
Comments: 81
Kudos: 341





	intimate with brokenness

**Author's Note:**

> i'm posting this through my tears and sobbing because it might be the morning after 8x10 but I'm still super emotional.
> 
> Hope you enjoy xx

The skies turned an alarming shade of crimson twelve hours ago now, and it’s safe to say that Felicity has never been this on edge before in her life. She was feeding Mia, who is now five months old out on the porch in a deckchair, humming softly to the baby, when cloudless blue transformed into red above them; the horrified realization hit her in an instant, the same moment Mia started crying. The Crisis was here. The series of events that the Monitor claimed would lead to her husband and father of her children’s death had begun. And judging by the blood-soaked skies still outside the cabin windows, the Crisis is still happening.

While Felicity has been focused on caring for little Mia, she’s been busy worrying as well. She’s tried to call Lyla, John, even Sara, and Barry, but none of them have picked up. She’s completely clueless as to what’s going on, stuck out in the middle of nowhere with her precious infant daughter, and she is utterly powerless. She doesn’t know if Oliver is alive or dead. She doesn’t know who they’re fighting, what battles they’re facing or how long this Crisis will continue for - or if it will ever end. She keeps her cell phone in one hand, hoping that she’ll get a text, an email, _anything_ , but instead, she gets nothing. Has Oliver told them they shouldn’t involve or contact her? Is that why they’re not calling and asking for her tech help? 

She’s frustrated; yes, Felicity has a baby to look after, but she’s also a genius and arguably the best at tech out of all of the superhero teams. She knows that they could use her help. The multiverse is at risk of being destroyed and her husband is fighting to save it. She wants - _needs_ \- to be by his side. If there’s any hope of changing fate and stopping Oliver’s death from occurring, she wants to be there to make sure that hope takes root.

Mia releases an impatient noise, startling Felicity from her deep thoughts. She’s sitting in her high chair at the kitchen table, waiting for her mother to prepare her lunchtime bottle.

“Calm down there, little star, it’s almost ready,” Felicity soothes her.

Squealing, Mia claps her hands. “Mamamama,” she babbles. At five months, she’s already hitting six and seven-month milestones. Although Mia hasn’t said her proper first word yet, she’s already quite talkative. It’s adorable.

Oliver left before Mia could begin babbling and making word-like noises. He got to witness her first smile and hear her first laugh, but he’s missed so many other firsts. If he dies in Crisis, he’ll miss the rest of her life.

Felicity gets so anxious thinking about Oliver that half-way through warming Mia’s bottle, a wave of nausea crashes over her. Her stomach cramps painfully and she has to sprint to the sink. She gets there just in time to empty her stomach. Acid and bile make her throat burn, bringing tears to her eyes. She coughs and splutters while rinsing her mouth out with water.

Her stress over the last couple of months has been so intense that it’s seriously affecting her bodily health. A month after Oliver left, she was so overcome with depression that she stopped producing breastmilk, meaning she had to wean Mia onto formula, which was a struggle in itself. She’s been getting fatigued and feels tired all the time, although she doesn’t know if she’s physically exhausted or mentally, given that she’s been having nightmares every night about Oliver dying. They’re such awful dreams that she often ends up throwing up when waking up from them.

She hasn’t had a period since Mia’s birth, just some spotting a few weeks before Oliver left which their doctor told her was probably lochia; that’s a sign she’s stressed. Felicity has put on some weight as well, which should be a good thing, as the doctor said that she needed to gain a little weight considering how much she lost after Mia’s birth, but she reckons it’s because of stress, not because she’s eating better. She’s definitely not been eating better; her appetite oscillates between being terrible and being insatiable.

Without Oliver at home to cook for her, she’s been eating all sorts of greasy and salty foods, and stress-eating icecream. Felicity knows that Oliver would be disappointed with her, but she can’t bring herself to change her habits. Imagining Oliver sighing and looking at her with a fond, exasperated look as he tells her that icecream is for weekends only is one of the only nice dreams she has, and even those she wakes up sobbing from, because being separated from Oliver is _killing her_.

Mia is the main reason she’s still sane and attempting to keep her head above the water; she has to keep herself reasonably healthy so she can take care of her daughter. Mia has her father’s beautiful blue eyes and stubborn but gentle personality. Sometimes Felicity catches the infant peering around the cabin confusedly, as if searching for her dad, sensing that he’s gone. Oliver used to read Mia a chapter from a book every night before putting her to bed and now, whenever Felicity attempts to do the same to keep up the tradition, Mia just whimpers and wants cuddles. She misses Oliver just as much as Felicity does.

The only difference is that Mia is so young now, with barely consolidated memories, that she’ll probably forget what Oliver looks like and sounds like soon. Yes, she’ll be able to look at photos of him and hear the voice recordings he made for her - the one where he sings _Part of Your World_ from The Little Mermaid never fails to make Felicity have a breakdown - but she won’t have her own memories of him. It’s heartbreaking to think about. Mia will know that her father will love her, as Felicity has kept her promise and told her that every day, and she’ll know that her father loved her enough to leave and save the universe to keep her safe, but she won’t get to experience that love in person.

Adult Mia from 2040 is proof of that. Felicity bows her head over the sink, breathing heavily. Felicity has been keeping up with the goings-on in Star City throughout November, and knows that the Monitor brought Mia, William, and Connor from the future to 2019. She’s seen CCTV images and videos of them. It’s too overwhelming for her to think about. William looks just like his dad and Mia looks just like her. But William has Felicity’s mannerisms and Mia acts like Oliver. They’re both wonderful and beautiful, but Felicity soon finds it impossible to make herself watch them in the bunker’s video feed because all she can think about is how she failed them.

Or will fail them, in the future. It’s confusing to try and think about tenses. Their present is her future and their past is her present. They grew up without their father in a bitter, cold world that hated vigilantes, and that’s all to come for Felicity. She never got custody of William back. She’s been trying to do that for the last month, and negotiations with William’s grandparents are going well, but he’s still living with them currently out on the West coast, and he doesn’t know about his baby sister yet.

She hopes that she managed to at least be a decent mother to Mia. Felicity apparently had her trained by Nyssa when she was younger. She’s grown up to be an archer as well, the leader of the Team Arrow of 2040. Felicity wonders if she’s fighting by her father’s side in Crisis. Would Oliver allow their daughter to place herself in danger like that? Felicity reckons the answer is no, but Mia seems like a very determined young woman who doesn’t like to be told what to do, so she also thinks that she probably has insisted on remaining with Oliver.

“MAMAMA!” Mia yells, a whine injected into her unhappy babble.

Felicity hastily flushes the sink with water, embarrassed by the fact she so easily lost herself in her musings that she left her daughter unattended. “I’m coming, baby, I’m coming,” she says hoarsely, finishing up heating the bottle of milk and checking the temperature before carrying it over to the baby.

She lifts Mia out of her high chair and props her on lap on the couch so she can feed her. Mia takes the bottle nipple into her mouth eagerly. She begins frantically suckling as if she hasn’t had milk in days. The baby raises her tiny hands and covers Felicity’s fingers around the bottle with them, lying back in the crook of her mother’s elbow. For a couple of minutes, while she feeds her daughter, Felicity is able to sit back and try and relax. She closes her eyes, resting her head on the back of the couch; without the red hue spilling through the windows and haunting her, she’s able to roll some of the tension out of her shoulder as she exhales slowly.

Mia has just finished her meal, and Felicity is about to go and grab her burp cloth, when a deep, echoing voice that sends chills down her spine announces, “Felicity Smoak, you are needed. The Crisis is upon us and I require your aid.”

She wheels around, taking a terrified step back at the sight of the Monitor standing in the exact same doorway he appeared in two months ago when he came to collect her husband. In her arms, Mia bursts into tears, sensing her mother’s fear. Felicity rocks her in an attempt to calm her down, but her heart continues to race in her chest. The Monitor barely blinks, his gaze only flicking down fleetingly over the baby before concentrating back on Felicity.

“You have a _hell_ of a lot of nerve turning up here,” she manages to choke out, voice wavering. “After last time you told me my husband is going to die and then took him away with you.”

“Unfortunate, but necessary,” is the Monitor’s flat response. “As I said, your help is needed. You must come with me now to the Legends’ Waverider, where you will meet your allies on the mission I will bestow upon you. You must be briefed on what is to come and prepared physically and mentally if you are to read the Tome of the Guardians.” When Mia emits a whimper, burying her head into Felicity’s shoulder, he adds reluctantly, “You may bring your daughter if no suitable babysitter can be found.”

Felicity stares at him. He can’t actually be serious. First, he drags her husband from the cabin and now he’s come for her? Then again, she has been itching to actually do something to help… “I’ll come with you, but only if I can see my husband. Where’s Oliver? Is he on the Waverider? Is he okay?” she asks tremulously.

“He is on the Waverider,” the Monitor replies. “And he is fine.”

Well then, that makes her decision 100% easier. “I need to pack a bag for Mia,” she tells him. “It’ll take five minutes tops.”

“We do not have time on our side,” the Monitor says, displeased. “But do as you must.”

Felicity quickly ducks into the nursery, balancing Mia on her shoulder with one arm so she can gather up some of the baby’s clothes and disposable diapers, shoving things into her diaper bag. Her mind is spinning with different questions. She’s in disbelief that this is actually happening and of course, incredibly afraid, but also quite excited as well. She’s going to get to see Oliver again. Oliver and baby Mia will get to see each other again. The archer will probably be engrossed in their upcoming battles against whoever the hell they’re fighting, but they might be able to find a little spare time to spend together as a family.

The Monitor hasn’t moved from his spot in the doorway when Felicity returns, and it’s hard for her not to be creeped out by his weird staring. Felicity is forced to drop Mia back into her high chair so she can flit around the kitchen to pack her formula powder, bottles, and toys. Mia’s been eating solid food for a month now as well, so she picks a couple of containers of mashed foods that don’t need to go in the fridge.

It’s as Felicity is finishing packing the diaper bag on the dining table in front of the Monitor that the cosmic being seems to jolt in surprise, running his dark eyes up and down her thoroughly. Felicity frowns at him confusedly.

“I did not foresee this,” the Monitor says, something close to awe in his tone. “There is a life growing within you.”

Felicity’s heart drops like a stone. “I’m sorry, _what?_ ”

“You are with child,” he iterates.

Ice rushes through Felicity’s blood. Her legs falter beneath her as her knees weaken and she stumbles back against the table, feeling light-headed. Along with the flash flood of panic comes the numbness of shock, that sweeps over her body like a freezing tidal wave. She shakes her head frantically. “No. That’s not - that’s not possible,” she whispers.

“It would give me no advantage to deceive you.” The Monitor tilts his head. “In fact, it complicates my plans, as I will no longer be able to send you into the field on your mission.”

No, this cannot be real. This can’t be happening. Felicity’s breathing stutters and begins to grow shallow and ragged as she struggles to process this. Her shaking hand lowers down to settle on top of her stomach which yes, may be a little bloated, but she never imagined… she never thought that… she’s _pregnant?_ All of her health problems she thought were caused by stress… the weight gain, the intense dreams, the throwing up in the morning (of course it was morning sickness, how could she not have suspected that!?), the change in appetite, no periods, and her constant tiredness, they’re all pregnancy symptoms.

Felicity dazedly attempts to do the math in her head. Mia was born mid-August, on the 16th. She’s had that spotting her doctor thought was late lochia, but must actually have been a very light period, at the end of September. Without her even realizing it, she started ovulating again. But she and Oliver only started having sex again a week before he departed the cabin on October 14th, and they used protection every time. Didn’t they? Except on the 13th, they had sex in the shower that morning before Mia woke up… they didn’t use protection then… and if her cycles were back to being regular, her last ‘period’ with the spotting being roughly two weeks before that…

She’s pregnant. Felicity is actually pregnant.

She has to be just entering her tenth week. She’s been so distracted with looking after Mia and emotionally strained by Crisis and the thought of losing Oliver that she hasn’t been paying proper attention to herself, just thinking all her symptoms stress-related and ignoring them.

“Oh fuck,” she whispers to herself, tears sliding down her cheeks.

She’s pregnant with her and Oliver’s second baby, their third child, and she’s going to have to tell him once she sees him on the Waverider right before he runs out to fight a war and he’s been predicted to _die_. The destiny of her unborn child’s father is to be killed during Crisis.

The Monitor doesn’t give her any more time to think about this. He nods pointedly at the diaper bag and then Mia, silently ordering Felicity to pick them up. Then, he turns and in the middle of the cabin’s living room, a giant swirling blue portal appears. “This portal will take you to the Waverider’s bridge. I have other matters to attend to. I will see you shortly, Felicity Smoak.”

He vanishes with a sharp flash of night. Mia makes a distressed noise as it must hurt her baby eyes to look at, and then reaches for Felicity, wanting to be held.

“Mamaaaaa,” she cries, her crying reducing to simpering once she’s in Felicity’s shaking arms. 

Felicity’s free hand drifts down to her belly instinctively to protect the small life she’s nurturing inside of her from Mia’s kicking feet. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” she comforts Mia, although she’s barely holding herself together. She’s still crying herself, her throat thick and a strange tightness in her chest making it difficult to breathe. Mia is a welcome distraction though. As long as she focuses on her daughter, she thinks she probably won’t have a breakdown. “It’s okay. We’re - we’re gonna go see Daddy. We’ve gotta walk through the scary portal and then we get to see Daddy. And you’re going to see all of Mommy and Daddy’s friends who might be your honorary aunts and uncles, Mommy hasn’t decided yet, and there will be plenty of new people to fawn over you. I know you love that. Let’s get you into your coat and give you a pacifier and then we’ll go.”

Once Mia is bundled up warmly and falling asleep on her shoulder, Felicity throws the diaper bag over her other shoulder and her free arm to carry her laptop case. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she braces herself, cradling Mia protectively to her chest, and steps through the portal. Swirling blue transitions into black for a brief, terrifying second before Felicity’s foot lands on the other side, and she emerges on the Waverider’s bridge. The portal closes behind her silently.

Sara, Ray, Clark, and Lois (who is carrying a baby?) are standing over by the pilot’s stations, talking quietly. There’s an aura of misery hanging in the air that makes the hairs on the back of Felicity’s neck stand on end, and they’re all sporting grim, serious expressions. They haven’t noticed her appearance yet, focused on the serious conversation they’re having.

Mia announces their arrival when her pacifier slips out of her mouth and drops down Felicity’s bra, causing her to moan. The superheroes whip around, battle-ready, and upon seeing them, all of their jaws drop. Felicity flashes them a sheepish, tremulous smile before fishing down her shirt to grab the pacifier. She has to clean it before giving it back to the baby though, and Mia is not too happy about this, fussing and squirming.

“Felicity,” Sara greets her, eyes wide. “Hi. What are you doing here?”

“The Monitor said he needs me for some mission,” Felicity replies. She points down at the baby, who everybody is now staring at. “This is Mia. You know that though, right? The adult version of her from 2040 must be around here somewhere.” She glances around the Waverider searchingly. “Where’s Oliver?”

Sara starts towards her, suddenly looking pale and incredibly anxious. Felicity is thrown; she doesn’t think she’s ever seen Sara appear so distressed. Behind her, the other heroes scatter, vanishing down the corridor. It’s almost as they’re aiming to… avoid her? “Felicity…”

Mia whines, tugging at her mother’s hair. She wants her pacifier back. “Can you hold her for a second?” Felicity sighs, passing the baby over to the Legends so she can ruffle through the diaper bag on the floor for a food-safe, flavorless antiseptic wipe.

Sara holds Mia awkwardly, as if she’s never cradled a baby before, but Mia luckily doesn’t seem to mind and instead fascinates herself by running her little fingers through the woman’s blonde hair. The ex-assassin’s panicked expression softens when Mia hums at her, blinking up at her with her beautiful green eyes. Once she has the cleaned pacifier back in her mouth, Mia reaches for Felicity, who takes her daughter back from Sara to nestle on her shoulder again. Mia rests her head on her collarbone contently. Felicity has to admit this is one of her favorite things about having a baby to care for; they’re remarkably cute sometimes. She wouldn’t mind having another infant to do all of this with again. But she’d only be happy doing that with Oliver by her side.

“She’s adorable,” Sara comments.

“Oh, you would not be thinking that if I hadn’t got the pacifier back in her mouth in time. But you should see her when she’s with Oliver. She turns into a little angel.” Her eager eyes flicker back up to Sara’s face. “Where is he? I want to see him. It’s been months, I - I miss him.” She hovers her hand over her stomach. “I have something I need to tell him.” The idea of being pregnant with another unplanned baby is scary, but Felicity is sure Oliver will be over the moon excited.

Sara falters. “Felicity,” she manages to say, after a beat of tense silence. Her voice breaks halfway through her name.

She doesn’t need to finish her sentence. Because the haunted, anguished look in her eyes is a complete giveaway. Sara is grieving.

Felicity shakes her head desperately. She refuses to believe it. “No, the Monitor said he’s fine,” she insists, hysteria making her voice high. “He said Oliver is here, he said -”

“He’s in the medbay,” Sara interrupts, choking out her words. “But he’s - he’s not fine. Felicity, I’m - I’m _so sorry_...”

The tears brimming in Sara’s eyes spill over as she hangs her head in defeat. Felicity watches on with horror. The devastation at what Sara is saying but not saying slams into her with the weight of a freight train, and her knees give out from beneath her. Sara rushes forward to take Mia, who is now crying as she senses her mother’s drastically shifting mood, from Felicity’s arms just in time; there’s no way for her to stop her fall. Sobs rip through her, each one more viscerally agonizing than the last, and she can’t keep herself upright. Felicity crashes to the floor painfully, but nothing physical could match what she’s feeling emotionally right now. Like her heart is being torn apart and crushed. Her life shredding apart like a knife through tissue paper. Her soul _splitting_ as it registers the loss, the _death_ , of the love of Felicity’s life, her one true soulmate.

Oliver Jonas Queen, the Green Arrow, is dead. Her husband is dead. The father of William, Mia, and her unborn child, is dead.

“No, this can’t be real. He has to be alive,” she wheezes, wrapping her arms around herself as she begins to shiver. “I can’t do this if he’s dead. I don’t know how to live without him anymore. I can’t _do this by myself_.”

“Felic-”

“I’m pregnant,” she bursts out, peering up at Sara wildly, her vision blurred because of her tears. “The Monitor told me _literally five minutes ago_. Mine and Oliver’s second baby, unplanned, I’m ten weeks - and I have Mia, and I’m getting custody back of William, and I’m gonna have to raise three kids by myself and Oliver won’t even get to know about our youngest, he won’t get to meet them or hold them or - or -” Her sentence dissolves into another sob.

“Oh my god,” Sara breathes, gutted.

This can’t be the end. Every cell in her body is rejecting the idea of Oliver being dead and she won’t accept this being her new reality until...

“I need to see him,” Felicity whispers.

The Legend shakes her head vehemently. “Felicity, don’t do that to yourself -”

“ _I NEED TO SEE HIM!_ ” she yells, anger overtaking her despair.

Sara rears back in shock, peering at her warily. Mia’s crying intensifies until she’s gasping for breath on Sara’s shoulder, red in the face. She’s never seen Felicity angry before.

Felicity crumples. “I’m sorry, baby, I’m sorry, Mommy didn’t mean to shout,” she murmurs, plucking the infant from Sara and cuddling her frantically, feeling terrible for upsetting her. “Please don’t be scared.”

It takes a while for Mia to calm down. Felicity focuses entirely on taking care of her, shushing and rocking her gently in her arms while her own hot tears trail down her cold face, feeling like they’re burning. Sara stands by looking helpless and devastated.

Once the baby has tired herself out crying, and is falling asleep on her mother’s shoulder, Felicity shoots Sara a pointed, desperate look and the Legend gives in. She leads Felicity down the maze of corridors, checking around the corner every so often to make sure that nobody is there before gesturing her forward. Felicity can’t help but wonder why Sara is trying to sneak her and Mia around - is it to avoid adult Mia, as that might be further disruptive to the timeline that Crisis has already torn into tatters?

When they reach the medbay, the doors are closed - some sort of DNA scan is needed to enter. Sara wheels around to face Felicity and offers quietly to take Mia for her. Felicity is reluctant to let her daughter out of her sight, but reckons that if anybody can be trusted with Mia, it’s Sara. And it would just be totally wrong to take her and Oliver’s baby into the same room where his dead body is being kept. As Mia is asleep, she doesn’t protest at all to being transferred into Sara’s arms, and the Legend informs Felicity she’ll be waiting with the infant in her personal quarters, which are down the corridor, second left.

Felicity holds her breath as Sara opens the medbay up for her, and stands in the doorway with her chest feeling like it’s being filled with molten lead, her entire body being weighted down enormously while her breathing is constricted. That terrible, suffocating numbness washes over her once again once she steps inside the room - and her gaze settled on her husband’s body.

Oliver looks peaceful in death.

He’s dressed in his Green Arrow suit with his hands folded over his abdomen, and although he has various injuries on his face, the blood has been cleaned off him. The Waverider is holding him in a sort of stasis. Felicity stares at him blankly, her emotions a million miles away and yet utterly overwhelming at the same time. If she didn’t know that he’s dead, she would think that he’s just deeply sleeping. But his chest doesn’t rise and fall with breathing, and his body is _still_. Too still. Even when he was asleep, Oliver always moved, twitching. It’s incredibly disconcerting and just a reminder that Oliver isn’t resting.

Felicity has experienced moments in her life before where she thought Oliver was dead. This though… is the first time she’s ever felt that miniscule shred of hope that it might be temporary draining away. Oliver was killed, and this time… this time, it looks like he’s dead permanently.

She doesn’t realize she’s taken the few stumbling steps forward required to approach her husband until her trembling fingers are brushing against his sleeve.

“Oliver?” she croaks.

There’s no response.

She didn’t expect there to be one, but it’s heartbreaking all the time. Felicity trails her fingertips down from Oliver’s sleeve to his hand, so she can take hold of it carefully. His skin is freezing. It causes a silent sob to well to the surface, nausea to rise in her stomach. He’s not just dead, he’s been dead for _a while_. How long has he been laying here alone in this medbay?

“Miss Smoak.”

Felicity doesn’t turn around. “Fuck off,” she hisses.

“You are needed for the mission briefing,” the Monitor replies gravely.

She closes her eyes and swallows painfully. “My husband is dead,” she whispers, her voice strained. “You lied to me and said he was fine.”

“You did not ask if he was alive -”

She snaps. The anger and fury and _grief_ that have been building inside her explode out of her all at once, causing her to whip around and _shove_ the Monitor away from her. The cosmic being staggers back, appearing shocked. Felicity’s vision is blurry because of the tears in her eyes and she can barely find the strength to stand and hold herself together, but somehow her voice is able to articulate the tempest of despair tearing through her mind.

“Go to hell!” she screams at him. “You knew he was dead! I said I would only come if I could see him and you - you manipulated me to get me to agree to whatever stupid mission you want to send me on! Can you not even give me _five minutes_ to say goodbye to the love of my life, the father of my kids, MY UNBORN CHILD? FIVE MINUTES!? IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?!”

The Monitor looks suitably chastised and, taken back by her rage, he vanishes. It’s a good thing too, because Felicity was literally seconds away from taking a swing at him. She has to take a moment to collect herself, running her hands over her face to wipe away her tears and breathing deeply to stop her hyperventilation, before she returns to Oliver’s side. Would he be proud of her, for standing up the Monitor like that? She would like to think so. But he hates it when she gets upset - it always worries him.

“Sorry about that,” she murmurs, drawing a chair up to Oliver’s side so she can sit by him. She knows it’s ridiculous to be talking to him considering he’s dead and can’t hear her, but it’s the only thing that’s keeping Felicity was falling off a mental ledge right now, thinking there might be a chance in a billion that he might be listening. “I’m just kind of sick of his attitude. Selfish celestial jerk.” She chokes on another sob. She can’t seem to stop crying. “I - I don’t really know what to say, I’m sorry, Oliver. I know I have to accept that you’re - you’re dead but I…”

Oliver doesn’t finish her trailing sentence like he usually would.

He remains silent. Unmoving.

Dead.

“I’m pregnant,” she tells him in a shaky whisper. Felicity knows it’s weird but she turns Oliver’s hand, rotating his wrist, so his cold fingers can press against her stomach, where their unborn child lies within. “I always joked about you having super sperm because you managed to knock me up on our first wedding anniversary without even trying and… and you got me pregnant the day before you left the cabin. I know you would be ecstatic right now if you weren’t - well. I found out today. The Monitor just told me. I wish I’d found out a couple of days earlier so I could have told you… before you died. Maybe if you’d known, it would have changed things.” She bows her head, resting it on Oliver’s side as she exhales slowly. “I wish you could see Mia. I know you’ve been spending time with the adult version of her, but our little baby girl… our starlight… she’s grown so big. She’s started babbling and it’s adorable. And William! I’m - I’m working on getting custody of him back, just like you wanted, and it’s going slow but his grandparents are open to negotiation so I have hope. But I’m… I’m going to raise our three children alone and I don’t know how I’m going to do this without you. Oliver, I don’t know how to _live_ without you anymore.”

She finishes her train of thought and feels like she’s drowning in the echoing silence after, that would only be filled by her husband’s response that will never come.

“Felicity?” She raises her head and turns to see both Barry and Kara hovering in the doorway. The two of them are still in their supersuits. The two of them look surprisingly put together considering the massive loss they’re all experiencing. They look surprised to see her. It was Barry who spoke.

“How long have you been standing there?” she asks, resigned.

“Long enough,” Kara responds, wincing. “Sorry for eavesdropping. I would say congratulations on your pregnancy but considering the circumstances…” She shakes her head.

Barry tilts his head at her. “What are you doing here?”

That must be the stupidest question she’s ever heard.

“Mourning my husband and soulmate,” she spits. “ _Grieving_ the father of my son, daughter and unborn child. What do you _think_ , Barry? The Monitor dragged me here for a mission, and I even had to bring Mia along - Sara’s looking after her right now - but he lied to me about Oliver. I found out today I’m pregnant minutes before I found out about his death.”

He blinks in the face of her bitterness, while an expression of guilt and sympathy flashes over Kara’s face. “Felicity, we’re so sorry,” she says quietly. “The Monitor pulled us off Earth-38 before the battle concluded and the anti-matter wave engulfed us, but Oliver stayed to fight the shadow demons until the very end. We should have been there to save him.”

“But there was nothing we could do,” Barry finishes. “His injuries were too severe.”

Felicity struggles for words as she attempts to process this information. “The Monitor brought him back to this Earth alive?”

Barry nods miserably. “Yes. But like I said… he was too badly injured. But he saved billions of people from Earth-38. He died a hero. We were with him, in the bunker when he… He told us that Kara and I have to save us all now. Mia was by his side and so were we. He wasn’t alone. He had his friends and family with him as he passed.”

Felicity stares at him in disbelief. No. Barry did _not_ just say that. “I wasn’t there.”

The speedster immediately seems to recognize his mistake. “Felicity -”

She cuts him off, raising her hand and shaking with anger. “I can’t even _look_ at you right now. How - how _dare_ you. Oliver sacrificed himself for you. For both of you.” She glances between the two superpowered people in front of her. To her, they aren’t heroes. “I don’t want your condolences or reassurances that you were by his side, because I _wasn’t_ , and I should have been. Oliver started fighting this Crisis _months_ ago and he left me, Mia and William, knowing he was going to die. You could argue he started in October, but by all technicalities, he started fighting it LAST YEAR when he made a deal with the Monitor to save the both of you. His life, for yours. Oliver sacrificed the life he’s always wanted, safe and happy living with me and raising our family together, to save the both of you. Barry, you and Kara didn’t save all of us, _Oliver_ did. The two of you have never truly believed in him as a hero and the fact that you’re calling him a hero NOW, after he died to save billions of people? He was _always_ a hero. He’s saved billions of people before on his own, without either of you, you just never acknowledged it. No, he was the _best_ of all of us, he always was and he always will be.”

She casts one last soul-crushing look towards Oliver before shoving past them. She has to focus on her family, instead of crying over her husband’s dead body. She has to go and collect her daughter; Felicity wants nothing more than a cuddle with her baby girl right now.

Barry catches her arm as she tries to exit the med-bay. “Listen… Felicity… if you ever need somebody to, I don’t know, babysit Mia -”

Felicity punches him. Barry obviously isn’t expecting it, and is decked to the floor. He gapes up at her in astonishment at her violence, but she doesn’t care; she flexes her dominant hand, knowing that Oliver would have been immensely proud of that hit she just threw. Her knuckles barely hurt at all.

“You kind of deserved that,” she hears Kara admit to the speedster as Felicity strides out.

Sara is waiting for Felicity when she arrived at her quarters. The space looks lived in and cozy, and Felicity reckons that’s because Sara isn’t the only one who lives in here anymore, as her girlfriend Ava shares her bunk. The Legend has placed Mia down on top of her bed, nestled between two pillows. She’s keeping the baby entertained by dangling what appears to be a set of lock-picks over her so that Mia reaches up and tries to grab them, kicking her little legs furiously.

“Look who’s back, Mia-Bia!” Sara says, lifting the baby into her arms so she can pass her over to Felicity. “Mommy’s here.”

“Mamamamamamama,” Mia babbles. She’s delighted to see Felicity again. The infant has absolutely no idea of the loss they’ve just suffered; how could she?

Felicity holds back her sniffles as she cuddles the baby. “Yeah, Mommy’s got you, starlight,” she mumbles into Mia’s ear. “Daddy… Daddy can’t be with us anymore, but I’ve still got you. He’ll always be with us, in here.” She taps over her own heart and then Mia’s. The baby whimpers.

“Felicity.” She glances over at Sara. Her eyes are disconcertingly wet with her own tears. “If you ever need _anything_ , and I mean literally anything, I will be there for you, okay?”

“I don’t suppose you could travel back in time and bring Oliver back, could you?” she chokes out a stuttered laugh.

Sara drops her head shamefully. “I’m sorry.” That’s a no. Her cell phone beeps. When she checks it, she sighs and informs Felicity, “That’s Ray, apparently the Monitor is waiting for you on the bridge and is getting impatient.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Felicity growls under her breath.

Sara gives her and Mia each one last hug, wishing them good luck - and giving her condolences once again, which Felicity doesn’t mind so much coming from her, as she knows Sara would have tried her very hardest to save Oliver - before giving her directions down the corridor.

Felicity’s halfway out of Sara’s personal quarters, running one hand over her face as she tries to calm herself down, when she hears a faint exclamation of shock. Felicity glances up, shifting Mia on her shoulder as she blinks her eyes, which are stinging because of how much she’s cried in the last half an hour - and instantly freezes.

It’s Mia. _Adult_ Mia. She’s in her own Green Arrow costume - and oh god, there’s splashes of blood on her sleeves - and she’s sporting a deer-in-the-headlights expression. Her twenty-one-year-old daughter from the future is just as beautiful in person as she was in the bunker CCTV footage. But she looks exhausted, weary to the bone. Her eyes are red-rimmed and there are tear-tracks on her pale face; she’s been crying too. A lot. She was with Oliver when he died, Felicity remembers Barry saying. Mia had to watch her own father die in front of her.

“Mom?” Mia whispers in astonishment, her voice raw and cracking.

Felicity stares at her, speechless. In her arms, baby Mia twists around, and after a moment, to her surprise, squeals happily and extends her tiny arms out, reaching for her older self. The older Mia looks totally floored, eyes flickering down to the baby as her jaw drops.

“Mia?” Felicity manages to whisper.

“Are you here for Dad? Mom, he’s… he’s dead,” Mia says, her voice trembling. “I’m so sorry, he - he wanted me to tell you, he loves you so much. I’m _so sorry_. I should have been there, I should have saved him.”

Felicity shakes her head and takes a step forward, wanting to pull her into a hug - and is engulfed in sudden, blinding blue and white light, landing on the Waverider bridge with the Monitor standing impassively in front of her.

“OH COME ON!” she shouts. Why does the Monitor always have to ruin _everything_ when it comes to her family? Baby Mia has disappeared from her arms. Instantly, Felicity panics. “Where’s my daughter!?”

“She is safe. Thea Queen volunteered to care for her,” the Monitor replies flatly. “This mission will already be placing one child in danger -” his gaze wanders down to land on her flat belly, and Felicity covers herself with her arms self-consciously, glaring - “It would not do any good to endanger another.” He straights himself up, announcing, “Felicity Smoak, it has been determined you have the strongest mind in the multiverse, with the most potential for being able to resist cosmic time disturbances and understand the ancient Tome of the Guardians.”

“Fine, I’ll bite,” she snaps. “What the hell is this Tome?”

“It is the Book of the OA. It is a repository of all multiversal knowledge, and therefore will contain the information I need - the identities of the paragons which may re-spark the universe.” A small smile twitches at the Monitor’s mouth, and it’s terrifying. “And I require you to read it for me.”

“Re-spark the universe?” Felicity echoes. Hope flickers in her chest. “Like, reset it? If I read this book could it tell me how to bring Oliver back to life?”

“That is for you and you only to discover.”

* * *

Felicity goes to the Guardians and requests (and gains) their permission to read the Book of the OA, which is written out of _time_.

She falls into a multiversal timestream that shows everything that has been, is and will be all at once and her brain nearly explodes trying to comprehend it all. She sees the paragons, sees her friends and family, sees Mia as a baby, as an adult, all throughout her life - she sees _Oliver_ , lost and tumbling through the vortex, and screams in grief and frustration all over again when she can’t save him.

She sees a baby, a tiny little boy with shining blue eyes and dirty blond hair like Oliver’s, adorable dimples, calling her “Mommy”. Lucas. His name is Lucas Oliver Smoak-Queen.

She discovers that Oliver has a destiny; he has proved himself worthy in the last thirteen years of his life, full of trauma and suffering and survival, to become what is called the Spectre. Her husband must be brought back to life, because when his soul is recovered, he will be transformed and become an all-powerful cosmic being - even more powerful than the Monitor and Anti-Monitor - who prevails over justice in the multiverse and protects the balance.

It takes a while for her to recover from this overload of information. She gives the Monitor the paragon’s identities but keeps Oliver’s destiny a secret, insisting to Barry that they need to use another Earth’s Lazarus Pit to bring him back to life. Barry, thankfully, doesn’t ask many questions, probably because he’s scared Felicity will punch him again.

She leaves the Waverider with a lump in her throat, knowing that in a matter of hours… the multiverse will be over.

When Earth-1 and the rest of the multiverse are swept away by anti-matter and plunged into infinite darkness, Felicity is cradling Mia tenderly in a deck chair on the cabin porch, showing her the constellations and talking to Lucas, who she can now feel little flutters from in her lower belly. All she knows for those split seconds is alarm and fear and the drowning black.

But just before that nothingness consumes her, Felicity allows herself to feel a faint glimmer of hope.

Oliver is the Spectre now, and has the power to create an entirely new universe.

Her love for Oliver will save not only him, but all of existence.

Not bad for somebody who eight years ago, only thought of herself as a lowly IT girl.

* * *

Felicity remembers the old universe when she wakes up in the new one. Maybe it’s because she read the Book of OA, or maybe it’s something else, but whatever it is - she wakes up in a bedroom in the Queen mansion, which apparently did not burn down in this new universe, that she can just tell is Oliver’s old room.

She stumbles downstairs, confused, and is shocked to find Moira Queen alive. Not just alive, but making pancakes in the kitchen with Emiko and Thea. Emiko has baby Mia propped on her knee and Thea is topping up up a glass of orange juice for William - _William is here_.

Felicity runs to the nearest bathroom to hyperventilate and also throw up.

She has memories from this new universe, but also memories from this new one, and she’s suffering from a splitting headache trying to mesh them together. The morning sickness Lucas is giving her doesn’t help.

Cool hands hold her hair back as she vomits into the toilet and she peers up in Moira in disbelief as her mother-in-law, who used to hate her in the old universe but now apparently adores her, offers comfort.

“Oh, Felicity, you forgot to take your antiemetic meds from Dr Schwartz last night, didn’t you, sweetheart?” Moira says kindly, rubbing her back.

“Had a lot on my mind,” she mumbles in response, wiping her mouth with some toilet paper.

Moira offers her a bottle of water and then helps her to her feet, over to the sink. “Of course,” she replies, her voice sympathetic and calm. “Oliver fighting this Crisis has us all scared stiff. But we have to have faith he’ll come back to us Despite everything he’s gone through, he always fights to get home.”

Felicity manages a nod as she swills her mouth out. “I know. I just… worry.”

“I do too,” Moira sighs. “Come on, dear, let’s go get you some ginger tea and toast. Mia was calling for her ‘Mama’ earlier and she’ll scream the house down if she doesn’t get to see you soon.”

As Felicity hangs in the kitchen with the rest of her and Oliver’s family, watching William play with Mia in her high chair while she forces toast that tastes like sawdust down her throat, she runs through all of her memories of this new universe, trying to make sense of everything. Apparently, she and Oliver never moved to Bloomfield permanently, simply going there for a two-month summer vacation, and instead stayed in their Star City apartment - they didn’t need to go into hiding as Emiko never turned on them and the Ninth Circle was defeated. She’s been living at the Queen mansion with Moira, Thea, and Emiko ever since Oliver left to fight in Crisis, as the women wanted to support her with Mia and her pregnancy, which everybody knows about. Even her mom is aware, but she’s stuck in Vegas right now at work.

There’s a fleeting moment, that is pure and wonderful and incredible, where Felicity thinks - Oliver must be alive. He re-started the entire universe, so he must be alive now. She hurries outside and paces in the Queen mansion’s front gardens as she calls John.

But then her heart and soul are crushed once again when John asks her to run a global search, because Oliver isn’t in the bunker. Nobody can find him. The search, which Felicity runs in the mansion’s library, which is where their home bunker set-up is now, gives no results. Oliver isn’t on Earth. He’s not traceable anywhere.

Is it because he’s the Spectre still? Is she just not able to track him in that form?

She gets her answer, which is a resounding yes, when she’s standing on the balcony, as the day approaches its end, stars twinkling above her. Mia asleep in her crib next door, in an antechamber that has been transformed into a nursery.

“Felicity Smoak?” she hears a soft, familiar, teasing voice call to her.

Felicity’s heart jolts and she inhales sharply with a shudder, scarcely believing that this is real. Very slowly, she turns around.

“Hi.” Oliver’s lips tick up into a grin. “I’m Oliver Queen.”

He’s alive. He’s _alive_.

He’s dressed in a weird version of his Green Arrow suit with a fucking _cape_ , but he looks radiant, as if years have been lifted off him and he’s been given new life. Which he kind of has, as the Spectre. _But he’s alive, and he’s come back to her_.

She sprints into his arms and hugs him, dissolving into sobs, but this time they’re _happy_ sobs. Oliver embraces her with a breathless laugh, burying his face into her hair. She kisses him fiercely and passionately like a woman searching for her lifeline, and Oliver seems to be all too happy to be her tether to his Earth despite technically being an other-worldly being now. Tears run down her face; Felicity wraps one arm around his neck, the other coming up around his back so that she has a firm hold of him - and she thinks she’s never going to let go.

“I missed you so much. I thought you were dead! I thought I’d lost you,” she cries.

“No, Felicity,” he replies gently. “I _was_ lost but then you found me. We are bigger than the universe.” He frames her fa§ce with his hands, which are _warm_. Wiping away Felicity’s tears, Oliver rests his forehead against hers and whispers, “Listen, this is complicated. I’m… I’m still the Spectre. I’m not in tune with this universe like I was with the last one, so I can’t stay here for long periods of time. I have to return to my own dimension, outside of all known space and time, and reside there as I protect all of my new creation.”

“No. _No_.” Felicity clenches her hands in his cape, shaking her head frantically. “Oliver, you can’t leave me again after I just got you back!”

“Hey, hey, I’m not leaving!” he promises. “Not permanently. I can visit you anytime I want. It’ll just be like I have a job… not the regular 9 to 5 sort of job, but a job nonetheless, that means I’m away during the day and have to go on ‘business trips’ to other universes. I _WILL_ be here to help you raise our children, I promise you that. _ALL_ of our kids.” His hands drop down to rest over her belly. “Including Lucas. You think I would miss my son’s birth? I don’t have a death wish - I know you would kill me!”

She grins shyly at him. “You know about Lucas?”

“Of course,” he answers easily. “I know everything now.”

“Are you a god?” she asks.

He smiles brilliantly. “The only heavenly one here is you.”

That makes her blush. Trust Oliver to become an all-powerful deity and call _her_ a goddess. “What are you?”

“I’m the Spectre,” he tells her. “But that’s not important.”

“Then what is?”

“I’m your husband.” He strokes his thumb over her cheek tenderly. “I’m William, Mia and Lucas’ dad. I don’t care about the rest of the universe, or living an eternity… time is a gift, and one I want to share with my family.”

“What about the others?” she questions worriedly. “Our friends, our family? The other heroes? Oliver, they all think you’re dead.”

“And it’s better that way,” he confirms. “If they knew I was alive and knew who I was, they’d be calling me down for cosmic favors every other week.”

Felicity has the feeling the _they_ Oliver is talking about mostly refers to Barry, who still seems to think he’s the most important person in the universe. He’s not. By far.

“This way, I get to spend time you with and our kids, and protect my creation, and nobody has to bother us ever again,” Oliver continues to explain. “We can live in peace, the two of us, with William, Mia, and Lucas. You can run Smoak Tech and I can come down from my extra dimension every other day and every weekend to cook Sunday lunches. But my position as the Spectre, the fact that I’m alive… that has to be kept a secret. Maybe in time, we can pull John and Lyla in, my mom and yours, and Thea, Emiko, _maybe_ Rene and Dinah. But for now, I’d prefer for this to remain between us and our kids. Speaking of whom…”

Oliver follows Felicity inside their bedroom so he can see baby Mia. Felicity needs to wake the infant up anyway to feed her. Mia’s absolute joy at seeing her father again, laughing and squealing as she claps her little hands against his cheeks and messily kisses his mouth brings Oliver to tears. Felicity cries silently as well as she witnesses a father reunite with the infant daughter he hasn’t seen in months.

“Hi Mia,” Oliver whispers. “I’m so happy you recognize me.”

“It’s only been a couple of months,” Felicity says. “And you’re her father. She’s missed you.”

“She has?” Oliver lifts her into the air and blows a raspberry into Mia’s belly, and she giggles delightedly, waving her arms. “I’ve missed her too. She still smells just like she did back in October.”

Felicity snorts. “That’s what you remember? How she smelled?”

“Cotton, baby powder and coconut oil,” Oliver hums, snuggling the baby so that she can nestle her tiny head against his heart. “And sometimes she smelled of your perfume, when you’d been holding her.” Mia releases a sharp cry and begins to fuss. “She’s hungry,” he realizes.

“Yeah, she wants my milk,” Felicity nods. “She’s on solid food as well now and Moira has been helping me wean her off onto formula, but when it’s the middle of the night like this, she’s not content until she gets her liquid gold.”

“You refer to your own breastmilk as liquid gold?” Oliver snickers.

She crosses her arms across her chest and raises her chin. “Yep.”

He laughs. “I’ve missed you so much.”

The archer insists on sitting directly next to Felicity as she feeds her, and alternates between brushing his fingertips down Felicity’s arm and cradling Mia’s head gently. He wants to go and see William too, but he’s several bedrooms down, and although it’s late and everybody is asleep, they can’t risk him going to see him yet. They’ll find a way for Oliver to tell his son he’s alive tomorrow.

It’s hard for Oliver to put Mia back down in her crib, but Felicity reminds him softly that the baby needs her sleep… and that there is a very big, comfy bed in the bedroom next door.

“Miss Smoak, are you trying to seduce me?” he asks in surprise.

“It’s Mrs Smoak-Queen,” Felicity smirks. “And obviously, yes.”

As soon as Felicity is sitting on the end of the bed, Oliver is stalking towards her, his eyes dark with arousal. Felicity is taken back for a moment by his confidence as he grasps her wrist and pins her down, her knees bracketing his waist as his lips hungrily searching hers.

Within seconds, Felicity has her hands buried in Oliver’s hair, gripping it securely while her head rolls back, allowing him access to her neck as his lips travel down the length of it. He immediately starts sucking hickeys over the tingling skin of her collarbones. It’s _amazing_. Is it possible that Oliver as the Spectre is even _better_ at sex that he was before? She’s trembling with need, impatiently tugging off his cape and hood until he gives in; Oliver jumps off the end of the bed and hastily tears off his suit until’s naked - and he immediately pins her back down, settling his hips into hers so she can cradle him against him and lock her legs around his waist.

“Shit, it’s been too long,” he gasps against her lips.

“You’re telling me,” she mumbles. “Lucas has been making me _so horny_ and it felt so ridiculously wrong to be getting off without you.”

Oliver growls. “No more of that now I’m back.”

Felicity kisses him with a ravenous craving for Oliver to press his weight into her more, having missed the feeling of him on top of her. Usually, whenever they have sex, she likes to be on top, slightly more dominant but tonight… She wants him to own her. She scrapes her nails down his back and Oliver moans quietly in response, but it’s the most delicious sound Felicity has ever heard. There’s something between them that’s simply _electric_ and yep, at this point, Felicity is convinced some god-like powers of Oliver’s are deepening their connection, heightening their awareness of each other’s emotions.

“Oh god,” she whines, when he rocks his hips into hers purposefully, trying to drive her insane.

“Well, technically, yes,” he gives her a winning, smug smile. He winks. “But I prefer Oliver.” Scooting back, he helps her swiftly shed her top and then yanks her leggings and underwear off, throwing them over his shoulder onto the floor so she’s left in just her bra, which he undoes skillfully with one hand and chucks away. “That’s better.”

“We have to be quiet,” she tries to argue, eyes fluttering shut when his hand slides down her side and hip to between her thighs, dipping into that burning heat and making her arch beneath him in pleasure. “Oliver, our - our daughter is next door -”

He waves a casual, dismissive hand towards where the nursery is. “There. Soundproofed.”

“You can do that?” she stutters, struggling to find words because his _fingers, fuck_. “God, that’s so hot.”

“Once again, you can totally call me Oliver.”

“ _Fuck_ , Oliver, stop teasing me, please!”

Oliver chuckles and leans down to press his lips to hers, and as he does, his hands grasp her waist and he tilts his hips, thrusting forward and sheathing himself to the hilt. Felicity’s brain almost explodes. This is pleasure unlike anything she’s ever experienced before. This is sex on a _whole other level_. Oliver seems to feel the same way as he slowly begins moving, dropping his forehead onto her shoulder as he groans deeply. They’ve never really needed words to communicate their feelings and tonight is no different. Especially when Felicity thinks she can almost _feel_ what he is feeling right now, which is utterly immense and mindblowing.

It’s a slow build to their climaxes. It’s been literal months since they’ve touched each other this way, months since Felicity had Oliver inside her - the last time was when he knocked her up with Lucas, the day before he left. That emotional _friction_ between them, intensified by his Spectre powers, makes everything all the more intense, and although it’s not rough or fast, it’s still absolutely perfect.

Felicity’s body reaches the top of the climb first, shattering into bliss and dragging Oliver along for the ride with a shout. When she breaks, she buries her face into the curve of his shoulder and neck and sobs. She never thought she would be able to do with him again and that’s tragic. It’s just incredibly overwhelming having him back here with her. Her whole body shudders as she rides the waves of her pleasure, whimpering his name repeatedly as he follows her with his own orgasm, buried deep inside her. She thinks she vaguely hears something like glass shattering but ignores it, her mind spinning.

Oliver collapses down on top of her, panting. He’s heavy but Felicity doesn’t care. They lie together, basking in their shared post-sex bliss for a good couple of minutes before he rolls off her onto his side, using his shaking hands to pull her close to him in an embrace. Felicity curls up, turning so she can press up against his own naked body, plastering their chests together.

As she’s settling down, she catches a glimpse of something over his shoulder and blinks in disbelief. “Oliver, I think you might have exploded my flower vase when you orgasmed.”

“Still getting used to the telekinetic powers,” he sighs. “Sorry.”

“Sorry? Don’t apologize. You know, I think that’s the best sex we have ever had and will ever have,” she murmurs.

Oliver huffs a laugh, propping his chin on top of her head after pressing a kiss to her sweaty forehead. As he wraps his arms around her, he replies in an amused rumble, “You’re speaking too soon. We’ve got the rest of our lives and I’m going to make it my personal mission to make every round of sex after this the best sex ever. The only way is up.”

Felicity’s eyes fill with tears at his phasing. “The rest of our lives together,” she repeats, voice thick with emotion.

“Yeah. Does that…” He suddenly sounds nervous. “Does that sound okay?”

“That sounds _perfect_. But… we may have to work on the breaking vases thing.”

* * *

Oliver’s funeral is hilarious for Felicity, only because half-way through Barry’s eulogy, she hears a whisper of her name and glances sideways to see Oliver in Spectre-garb hiding behind a tree, raising his eyebrows at the speedster as he goes on to talk about the archer’s ‘ _heroic sacrifice for the greater good, to save the paragons and give the new universe its greatest heroes_ ’ as if Oliver wasn’t one of them in the first place. Felicity can see that adult Mia, Sara, John, and basically everybody else at the funeral are giving Barry the side-eye for this speech.

Oliver uses his Spectre powers to make Barry trip down the steps from the stage on his way down so he faceplants the ground.

Felicity snickers in amusement and makes a mental note to thank Oliver for that amusement.

Mia almost gives his presence away because she starts screaming, “Dadadada!” when she spots him. William has her on his lap and has to cover his mouth with one hand to muffle his sniggers, as he has now also spotted his father - he’s already in the know that he’s still alive - and is entertained by his sister’s decision to make things difficult. Everybody at the funeral thinks it's so sad and begins crying while Oliver, behind his tree, tries to desperately motion for Mia to be quiet as she claps her hands happily, Felicity and William biting their lips to stop themselves from laughing.

* * *

Lucas Oliver Smoak-Queen is born on July 4th, Independence Day, 2021.

It’s a home delivery, with Oliver grasping Felicity’s hand as she struggles through twelve hours of labor and John and Lyla backing them up, Dr Schwartz on medical.

Oliver cries like he did when Mia was born as they wrap Lucas up in his Spectre cape before giving him to his father to cradle. He calls Lucas his lord of the universe, as Mia is already the princess and William is the prince, and swears that as long as he lives and breathes, no harm will ever come to him. And considering Oliver is basically a god, Felicity reckons he’ll be able to keep that promise.

The future is bright.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed x
> 
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar  
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13


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